How to chose a "Trending" subject before it Trends

Subjects to write about to earn money

If you’re still undecided on what to write about for your next article or perhaps just looking for ideas generally then continue reading.

My undergraduate is in Marketing Management. I’m not going to pretend that I know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to increasing traffic for your articles. What I can do is offer you my research into trending and patterns I’ve observed so maybe we can be proactive in predicting trends. The advice generally is “look for a niche” and “grab a bigger piece of a smaller pie”. I don’t agree wholeheartedly with this as you can find a unique angle on a massively popular trend and get a larger piece of the BIGGER pie.

What is Trending?

Trending is basically a “popular searches” report. For example, Yahoo displays an updated “Trending Now” table on its page. You can also use Google Trends which will give you an insight on a wider scale given their share of the market. As a writer you’ll be aware of this but its better to have an article published that will “trend” next week, or next month, than one that has trended last month. For the benefit of this article I have considered two types of Trends:

Spontaneous

This is something that you can hardly plan for. A Spontaneous trend could be a natural disaster or the death of a celebrity.

Predictable

Predictable trends are easier to write about as they are “Predictable”. The Queen’s Jubilee was on the top ten trending table for several days. Did you write anything about it? What about the 20'th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down? Being quick out the trending blocks also has a side benefit. You become a resource for late trenders.

Filling up your article itinerary

Let’s take the easy ones first: Religious events. This will be increasingly popular as governments will introduce initiatives to encourage students to learn about one another’s beliefs. And where does your modern student turn for information? The internet of course. Also it will be fun to learn about the various religions and their respective rituals and beliefs.

Here are some dates from July 2012 to the end of December 2012. This is just a brief summary so accept my apologies if I have missed anything important:

There are other anniversary dates for world events that might be handy to know. To use the example of the Berlin Wall again. That was a massively popular subject online with sub trends of JFK and great tales of escape from old East Berlin. So these dates, below, might be handy for subject matter. This information was not hard to collect but the trick is knowing what might be debated and/or discussed.

The below type of events are remembered for a number of reasons. Some are tragic and it’s important to remember. Others are milesstones in human development, like Ray Tomlinson who sent the first email in 1971. Some are simply a subject of interest in the context of recreation.

World Events:

July 1’st 1916 – First day of the Battle of Somme where a disgusting number of people lost their lives and many more injured.

July 20’th 1969 – First manned space craft lands on the moon. What have we achieved since?

July 25’th 1984 – First woman to perform a space walk was Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya.

July 25’th 1965 – Bob Dylan goes electric much to the concern of many of his fans.

September 17’th 1976 – First space shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA

October 5’th 1962 – Doctor No, the first James Bond film is released. Why did we love those films?

October 24’th 2012 – United Nations Day. What is the United Nations and what does it actually do?

November 5’th 1937 – Hitler holds secret meeting about acquiring living space of the German people. What did this represent for the rest of the world?

December 20’th 1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

These are just some very general ideas on what to write about. Ideas that might generate some interest in other media outlets and perhaps be a top 10 trend. I hope you find this useful.

Comments

No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.

sending

Sondra Rochelle

6 years agofrom USA

I've written a few trendy articles but have found that evergreen articles do better. Interesting concept, though. Thanks.

D.Juris Stetser

6 years agofrom South Dakota

Hi Academicviews, I really enjoyed this hub. You've given a great deal of information and some great suggestions as well. My hubs are all poetry, but I'm not locked into it, and occasionally writing non-fiction as well Voting this one useful, interesting, awesome, and Up, for the sheer wealth of inspiring ideas and info. Thanks so much!

mlvn

6 years ago

Excellent info.

Thank You

mypassion

6 years ago

I haven't use Google Trends or Yahoo Trends so far. This makes it easier to find trending subjects. Normally I just give a google search for 'popular topics'.

Thanks Academicviews for letting us know about this feature.

AUTHOR

Academicviews

6 years agofrom Scotland

Thank you, there was a few little errors that hopefully I've fixed now.

Graham Lee

6 years agofrom Lancashire. England.

Hi Academicviews. Thank you for this informative hub. Full of help and information, so freely given.

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)